Read up on our Weekly Wonders for the weekend of April 27-29, 2018:
River Paulk, 12, Lubbock Swim Club: 50m free (27.61) – At the Duel in the Pool hosted by City of Midland Aquatics on April 27, he won the boys’ 11-12 50 free with his first sub-28, taking 4/10 off his best time and going 1.4 seconds faster than he was at this time last year. He also dropped 2.8 second to win the 50 breast. The next day, swimming at the COM Long Course Open, Paulk won the 100/200/400 free and 100 breast with new PBs in all but the 200 free.
Liam Bresette, 18, Empire KC Swim Club: 100m free (51.92) – Arizona State commit Bresette kicked off his 2018 long course season by lopping 2/10 off his PB and notching his first sub-52 in the 100 free at the 2018 UMIZ Invite. Bresette finished third in the event, just .01 behind the runner-up. In addition to his bronze-medal performance in the 100, Bresette placed third in the 50 free and the 200 free, and took 7th in the 200 fly.
Lily Milner, 14, Kalispell Aquatic Team: 100m free (1:00.80) – Milner dropped 3.4 seconds in the 100 free at the Sandman Group Lethbridge Spring Invitational hosted by LA Swim Club at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. She also improved her lifetime bests in the 50 free, 200 free, 100 back, 200 back, and 200 IM.
Austin Smith, 15, Aquatic Club of Elkhorn: 100m free (56.01) – Swimming at the Augustana Spring Splash hosted by Augustana University Women’s Swimming at the Midco Aquatic Center in Sioux Falls, Smith won the boys’ 15 & Over 100 free with a best-by-1.2-seconds 56.01. That’s 2.9 seconds faster than he was a year ago. Smith also earned new PBs in the 50 free, 100 back, 200 back, and 100 breast.
Kevin Houseman, 16, Bainbridge Island Swim Club: 100m breast (1:03.71) – Houseman won the boys’ 15&O 100 breast with a new meet record at the 11th Annual Dick LaFave Long Course Kickoff hosted by the South Snohomish County Dolphins. He improved his time by 9/10 and was 2.4 seconds faster than he’d been last year. Houseman won the 50 breast as well, and left the meet with new times in both the 50 and the 100 breaststrokes.
Brett Bailey-Thomson, 12, Kroc Swim Academy: 100m breast (1:16.30) – Swimming at the SCAT Long Course Kickoff at Georgia Tech, Bailey-Thomson dropped 4.2 seconds in the 100 breast, making for a 10.2-second improvement year-over-year. He won the boys’ 11-12 event by more than 8 seconds. He also took home gold medals and new personal bests in the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM.
Connor Seminavage, 12, Hawaii Swimming Club: 100m fly (1:05.45) – One of only a handful of 12-year-olds at the Hawaiian Swimming Senior Meet, Seminavage took 2.2 seconds off a week-old time in the 100 fly to finish 17th. In the 200 fly, he dropped 11.6 seconds and came in 7th. Seminavage is now 8.4 seconds faster in the 100 fly, and 20 seconds faster in the 200 fly, than he was a year ago.
Lucy Bell, 13, Fort Collins Area Swim Team: 200m IM (2:26.50) – Bell tied her best time in the 200 IM and won the girls’ 13-14 event at Spring Splash Long Course Open hosted by FAST. She is now 6 seconds faster than she was last year at this time. Bell also won the 50/200 free, 50 breast, and 50/200 fly; she was runner-up in the 200 breast, third in the 50 back, and 11th in the 200 back. She finished the meet with new PBs in the 50/200 free, 200 back, 50/200 breast, 50/200 fly, and 200 IM.
Reminder: The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.
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